In conversation with alumni Coco Lom

Coco Lom is an artist/designer and graduated from Norwich University of the Arts in 2017, from BA (Hons) Illustration. Coco talks to us about her recent work as Creative Director for a Disney campaign 

Tell us about your practice

I would describe myself as a pattern seeker, colour lover, shadow chaser and stripe enthusiast! I’m hoping to open people’s eyes to all the joyful patterns, shapes and colours that lie around us and help us celebrate those small moments that we might not normally notice. I do this through my photography and design work, which are mostly made with assistance from one of my favourite tools — my photocopier!

What was your time like as a student at Norwich and how has the course helped you as a graduate?

The Illustration course at Norwich was brilliant as it encouraged us to explore lots of different ways of making – from photography and film, to textiles, sculpture and print. I loved how varied our workshops and briefs were. Every week, we had a visiting lecturer who shared their work with us – from comic illustrators and set designers, to mural painters, community workshop leaders and artists in collectives. It gave me an insight into so many different potential creative worlds that I could explore after uni.

When I graduated, I spent some time assisting and shadowing a range of creatives, such as working with set builders to make giant props for fashion shoots, working with food stylists to decorate miniature cakes, and working with paper-artists to build colourful shop window displays. This sense of exploration and wonder from Norwich helped me discover the projects I love doing today. I think one of Norwich’s strengths is also their focus on the practical side of what happens when you graduate – for example making sure we all created a website of our work to direct people to when we started looking for work.

Tell us about the Disney Campaign and your involvement?

Disney commissioned me as artist and Creative Director for their pop-up immersive experience in London called ‘The Wonder-ful Playhouse’. The Playhouse brought to life their Wonder of Play campaign, which sits as part of Disney’s 100 Years of Wonder celebrations. The project encouraged adults and parents to play more together using Disney’s characters, stories and products as well as items commonly found at home, after new research revealed the huge impact that play has on kids’ futures, their resilience, confidence and creativity.

We transformed a  London house into a series of magical immersive playrooms, with the designs and activities in each room inspired by a different Disney franchise, including Star Wars, Disney Princess, PixarCars, MARVEL, plus Mickey and Friends.

I brought my playful ideas and joyful colours, shapes and patterns to the experience. I also designed and led, along with children’s education charity Institute of Imagination, a series of creative workshops to a group of brilliantly imaginative children, who shared their ideas for the Wonder-ful Playhouse. It was then my joy to bring them to reality!

How did you get involved and hear about the project?

I was invited to put forward my ideas for each room in the playhouse — what it might look like and examples of playful activities that families could do together — which were then shared with Disney. It was a pretty exciting moment to hear that Disney wanted to collaborate and bring our worlds together as I’d grown up loving so many of their stories and films as a kid! For any students thinking about working freelance after they graduate, a great thing to do is get in touch with PR agencies so they know you and your work and can have you in mind for client projects.

What was your favourite room to design and why?

I think my favourite playroom is probably the Pixar Cars room, which was set up in the kitchen. We covered all the kitchen top surfaces with race tracks which I designed and were then printed onto vinyl. To build racing adrenaline, kick off the challenges and celebrate the winner’s victory, I re-invented the classic checkered racing flag for families to wave and cheer each other on. To set the scene, we also made bunting, using my black and white patterns, which filled the room above families’ heads. Watching the excitement and seeing the flags being used was one of my favourite parts of the house. This room was an explosion of play, colour and pattern joy!

Tell us about your design process?

In the workshops, the kids and I explored all the weird and wonderful things we could create with items from around the house, inspired by their favourite Disney characters. For example, we designed colourful, pattern-filled race tracks and tested them out using toy Pixar Cars. Back at my studio, I looked closely at the different combinations of shapes and patterns they used, which then inspired my designs for the race track in the Playhouse.

We also discussed what friendship meant to everyone and what it might look like as a shape, using Mickey and Friends as inspiration. Together we made a giant collage — cutting, sticking, taping and drawing to create an explosion of joy and colour. Combining their ideas and mine, I developed designs for the Mickey and Friends drawing room. Families coloured in the walls, with the room growing and evolving into one big, bright mural as more and more people joined in with the creativity. One of my favourite ideas from the workshops was to include a disco ball in the Disney Princess story time ‘pillow fort’, which was ‘for the party people!’ — absolutely brilliant! I loved hearing and seeing the children’s ideas unfold — their imaginations have no limits. Days like this are massively inspiring, not only for the children, but also for me as an artist.

What were the highlights from the project?

This project has been a fantastic opportunity for me to share my designs across a number of different surfaces, in a variety of ways — including light projections on ceilings in the Star Wars room, and on textiles as pillows and drapes in the Disney Princess room. It’s opened up lots of new possibilities for my practice as to how my colours and patterns can be applied in different spaces. One of the most exciting parts of the project for me was seeing the children’s faces light up as they entered each room. It was such a wonderful feeling to play together with families while discussing their favourite activities at home. We shared new ideas for creative play which were inspired by the spaces they loved best in the playhouse.

Can you tell us about any challenges you faced during the campaign?

This project has been a fantastic opportunity for me to share my designs across a number of different surfaces, in a variety of ways — including light projections on ceilings in the Star Wars room, and on textiles as pillows and drapes in the Disney Princess room. It’s opened up lots of new possibilities for my practice as to how my colours and patterns can be applied in different spaces. One of the most exciting parts of the project for me was seeing the children’s faces light up as they entered each room. It was such a wonderful feeling to play together with families while discussing their favourite activities at home. We shared new ideas for creative play which were inspired by the spaces they loved best in the playhouse.

What inspires your illustrations and designs?

Our world is full of striking patterns, joyful colours, unusual shapes and interesting objects. These often become the starting points for my research and my projects. All my patterns and designs for the Playhouse were inspired by the colours, shapes and patterns that run through Disney’s big history of stories and characters. For example, in the Disney Princess room, my designs were inspired by Cinderella’s castle — her checkered doors and rectangular turrets. I also remembered the rippling battle flags from Mulan, which had such a vivid impact on me as a kid.

My work is all about finding joy in places and things we might not normally notice. In the Star Wars room, I wanted to show families how they could use household items and incorporate them into their playtime at home. Together they shone torches through kitchen utensils, such as colanders with holes in and spoons with patterns cut out of them, to create intergalactic shadow patterns around the room, transporting them to a galaxy far, far away!

What advice do you have for current illustration student?

Make friends with people on other courses. Check out their work and do mini collabs together. Build those relationships — Norwich is full of creativity and people learning new skills. I still work with some of my friends from uni, and we put each other forward for jobs.

Don’t worry if you don’t know exactly what you want to do after uni, I had no idea either! Try lots of different things, talk to people and ask them about their world. Reflect on the bits you enjoyed the most, and the parts you didn’t. You’ll find the thing that really gives you a buzz.

A series of three short books by Austin Kleon that I loved reading after I graduated: ‘Keep Going’, ‘Steal Like an Artist’ and ‘Show Your Work!’. He shares so many great tips and pieces of advice that I still refer back to today — highly recommend.

Follow up with visiting lecturers for work experience. I got in touch with photographer Jess Bonham after she gave a lecture, which led to me assisting her on shoots for Google, Vogue, ES Magazine and more. It was a great introduction and stepping stone into the real world of work. I met lots of different people on set, which brought other opportunities and I got a job working at a photography studio in Shoreditch. Be kind, be helpful and just get chatting — you never know where your next job will come from.

Can you tell us about any exciting projects you have coming up in the near future?

I’m currently discussing a new textiles collaboration and hope to work with an international homeware brand to bring my colourful and pattern-filled world to people’s homes.

Photography by: Matt Alexander

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